Our top picks of exhibitions together with cultural spaces and places, both online and in the real world.

All, Art, Auctions, Exhibitions, Travel & Hospitality, Initiatives

Viewing Citizens of Memory, The Perimeter

The Wick Culture - Rachel Jones, Lick your teeth, they so clutch, 2021, oil pastel, oil stick on canvas

Above Rachel Jones, Lick your teeth, they so clutch, 2021, oil pastel, oil stick on canvas

The Wick Culture - Installation view of Walter Price’s work in ‘Citizens of Memory’ at The Perimeter gallery, London

Above Installation view of Walter Price’s work in ‘Citizens of Memory’ at The Perimeter gallery, London

The Wick Culture - Tunji Adeniyi-Jones, Sunset Duet, 2021, watercolour and ink on paper

Above Tunji Adeniyi-Jones, Sunset Duet, 2021, watercolour and ink on paper

The Wick Culture - Olivia Sterling, Sweet Violence, 2021, acrylic on canvas, private collection, London

Above Olivia Sterling, Sweet Violence, 2021, acrylic on canvas, private collection, London

The Wick Culture - Ndidi Emefiele, Sail me down deep river, 2020, mixed media and acrylic on canvas, private collection, London

Above Ndidi Emefiele, Sail me down deep river, 2020, mixed media and acrylic on canvas, private collection, London

Above Rachel Jones, Lick your teeth, they so clutch, 2021, oil pastel, oil stick on canvas

Above Installation view of Walter Price’s work in ‘Citizens of Memory’ at The Perimeter gallery, London

Above Tunji Adeniyi-Jones, Sunset Duet, 2021, watercolour and ink on paper

Above Olivia Sterling, Sweet Violence, 2021, acrylic on canvas, private collection, London

Above Ndidi Emefiele, Sail me down deep river, 2020, mixed media and acrylic on canvas, private collection, London

The Perimeter Gallery

18 May — 24 July 2021

Citizens of Memory is a show of glorious paintings by seven artists exploring memory, nostalgia and the Black experience. All seven artists have drawn on both collective and personal histories to investigate how the past can frame experience, shape artistic practice and form identities. The result is electrifying.

You are confronted by works of outstanding energy and vibrancy, among them Sunset Duet (2021) by British-Nigerian artist Tunji Adeniyi-Jones. Taking inspiration from both his Yoruba heritage and British upbringing, Adeniyi-Jones explores the communicative possibilities of the body and dance to transcend cultural boundaries.

Elsewhere, there’s a moving group portrait by Zimbabwean artist Kudzanai-Violet Hwami; and a new six-panel painting by British artist Olivia Sterling. What at first glance looks like a whimsical work depicting innocuous scenes of home cooking is actually something much steelier. These sugar-coated images serve as a commentary on white privilege, the complex issues of othering and racialised discourse.

Curated by the wonderful Aindrea Emelife, this powerful show packs a punch.

Viewing The Fifth Edition of Contemporary Sculpture Fulmer

Above

Contemporary Sculpture Fulmer, Buckhinghamshire

15 May — 24 October 2021

Currently installed across the site’s beautiful gardens are sculptures by around 30 contemporary artists including Polly Morgan, Rosie Grace Ward and Robert Cervera.

The works on display form part of the fifth edition of Contemporary Sculpture Fulmer, an annual summer exhibition at this wonderful but little-known private sculpture park in Buckinghamshire.

Founded in 2017, Contemporary Sculpture Fulmer aims to offer artists a space for sculptural experimentation, development and dialogue. Which is why you’ll see works of varying shapes, styles and sizes nestled among the flora and fauna.

Highlights include Jamie Fitzpatrick’s Prince St Charming Jjjorge, an equestrian figurative work of St George crafted of broken forms and symbols; and Hannah Rowan’s delicate blown glass vessels hanging from a majestic old cork tree.

With so much on show, you’ll be hard pressed to find better al fresco viewing this summer. Just remember to pre-register online before setting off.

Viewing Julie Curtiss: Monads and Dyads, White Cube

The Wick Culture - Julie Curtiss, States of Mind, 2021

Above Julie Curtiss, States of Mind, 2021

The Wick Culture - Julie Curtiss, Le Futur, 2021

Above Julie Curtiss, Le Futur, 2021

The Wick Culture - Julie Curtiss, States of Mind, 2020

Above Julie Curtiss, States of Mind, 2020

Above Julie Curtiss, Le Futur, 2021

The Wick Culture - Julie Curtiss, Kitchen Counter, 2020

Above Julie Curtiss, Kitchen Counter, 2020

Above Julie Curtiss, States of Mind, 2021

Above Julie Curtiss, Le Futur, 2021

Above Julie Curtiss, States of Mind, 2020

Above Julie Curtiss, Le Futur, 2021

Above Julie Curtiss, Kitchen Counter, 2020

White Cube Mason’s Yard

14 May — 26 June 2021

In recent years critics and collectors have feted Julie Curtiss, and commercial success has followed. Her quirky, saturated paintings of obscured or fragmented figures now sell for half a million dollars and can be found in private and public collections around the world.

Her first solo exhibition in London, featuring new paintings, works on paper and sculptures, draws you magnetically into the macabre, neo-surrealist vision that has made her name.

Curtiss has long been inspired by the notion of duality: ‘In my images, I enjoy the complementarity of humour and darkness, the uncanny and the mundane, grotesque shapes and vivid colours’. Not surprisingly, symmetries, binary oppositions and unexpected juxtapositions abound here.

States of Mind (2021), for example, depicts two middle-aged women wearing virtual reality headsets, while the carcasses in Coldroom 1 (2020) are polished and glossy, the environment clean and sterile. At once bizarre and dreamlike, Curtiss’s cinematic images get under your skin. No wonder she’s the art world’s new must-have darling.